| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d2741912e117">Crossing Cultures is a university-based research initiative that is part of London
Metropolitan’s Centre for Urban and Built Ecologies (CUBE) which aims to develop a
new pedagogical model. The focus is to provide an inclusive learning environment that
facilitates intercultural relationships and group learning, equipping students with
essential skills for a globally connected world beyond the subject of architecture.
We have paired the design studio activities in London with a field experience of live
engagement in southern Italy, in a region suffering from depopulation, while simultaneously
experiencing the arrival of asylum seekers. The confluence of these opposing developments
creates a need to rebuild local communities and presents an exceptional opportunity
for our students to become agents of change. The article outlines how, through the
creation of an additional teaching and learning platform for multi-disciplinary research
outside the boundaries of the university campus, this teaching practice is raising
social capital by attracting and integrating students and asylum seekers alike, adding
to population and economic growth. The article concludes by highlighting the unique
opportunity to scale up this hybrid studio/field study model, which has arisen because
of the COVID-19 pandemic. What is proposed is that now, as universities are developing
blended learning delivery models, our observations could feed into a new, expansive
model for studying architecture as a student-in-residence mode of study.
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